O.J. Mayo

USC dropped their sixth game of the season last night, 73-58, against the undefeated Washington State Cougars, moving the Trojans to 0-3 in Pac-10 play. Granted, the Cougars played some of their best basketball last night, but the Trojans still bear responsibility for the loss. One Trojan in particular. Though O.J. Mayo tallied 22 points and 7 boards, he also turned the rock over five times and missed eight shots. The rest of his team combined to miss just 14.

During the Trojans three conference losses, Mayo has missed an average of 10.6 shots per game. That’s more than 55% of the 18 shots that the rest of his team misses per game over their last three.

But without trigger-happy O.J., what would the Trojans do to put points on the board? Taj Gibson’s production has slipped off – there was a five-game span in which he didn’t touch double figures once. Davon Jefferson was out for two of their last three as well, depriving the Trojans of their second-leading scorer.

Perhaps the most detrimental stat of the night wasn’t Mayo’s misses. Bill Plaschke argues that it was USC’s inability to create turnovers: “The stat of the night? In a game that featured seemingly a zillion Washington State passes on every possession, USC had zero steals.”

But when the Trojans have managed to swipe the ball, O.J. often has been the one picking his man’s pockets. He ranks second on the team with 21 steals on the season. However that feels like the only stat in which he isn’t the team leader. He’s tops with 20.3 points, 4.0 turnovers per game, 35.9 minutes per game and field goal attempts – at a whopping 251 on the season. That’s more than Taj Gibson, Davon Jefferson, Angelo Johnson and Keith Wilkinson combined.

The Trojans will travel across the city on Saturday, January 19th to take on UCLA and their noteworthy freshman Kevin Love. As Mayo continues his ascension into the top 25 most field goals attempted in the nation, his counterpart Love will attempt to help his team match that climb toward the top of a different ranking – the AP Top 25.